Copy Shop and Song of Styrene
A captivating cinematic experience that delved into the intriguing world of carbon through two remarkable films: Copy Shop by Virgil Widrich and Song of Styrene by Alain Resnais. This screening and discussion aimed to explore the connections between cinema, materiality, and the impact of carbon on our lives.
More about Copy Shop: Unknowingly, a copy shop employee sets off a bizarre series of events with utterly unforeseen consequences. Through meticulous craftsmanship and a distinctive animation technique, Copy Shop explores the power of technology to reshape reality and the ethical dilemmas it brings.
More about Song of Styrene: Experience a poetic exploration of the industrial world in Song of Styrene. This visually striking documentary, commissioned by a plastic manufacturing company, offers a unique perspective on the production process of plastic and its cultural implications. Through Alan Resnais' visionary direction, the film becomes a meditation on the interplay between art, industry, and the materiality of carbon-based products.
About the Filmmaker
Virgil Widrich is a screenwriter, film director, multimedia artist and professor of Art & Science at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His short film Copy Shop was nominated for an Oscar. In total, his work has been awarded over 290 international awards. Virgil Widrich is involved in a variety of roles as project manager, conceptionalist, exhibition designer or artistic director in the creation of screenplays, short and feature films, music videos, installations, exhibitions and entire museums, as well as in international research projects.
About the Cultural Studies Scholar
Rashmi Sawhney is a Bangalore-based cultural theorist and associate professor in Film and Cultural Studies at Christ University. She writes on cinema and the visual arts and is co-founder with Lucia Imaz King, of VisionMix, an international network of artists, filmmakers and researchers. Her curatorial projects include Future Orbits and Video Vortex XI, both as collaterals of the 2017 Kochi Muziris Biennale; Set.Reset on ‘Cinema and Labour’ at The House of Inquiry, Goa, 2018; and Loss and Transience, Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei, March-May 2021. She has recently edited volumes such as Women at Work: The Cultural and Creative Industries (2020) and The Moving Image: South Asian Trajectories (2018).